Thankfulness

Thankfulness is being grateful for what we have. It is an attitude of gratitude for learning, loving and being. Appreciate the little things that happen around you and within you every day. Think positively. Thankfulness brings contentment.

Different meaning in Japanese - more like "deep emotion", "impression", "inspiration" - not recommended for a Japanese audience.

Humility / Being Humble

Being humble is considering others to be as important as yourself. You are thoughtful of their needs and willing to be of service. You don't expect others or yourself to be perfect. You learn from your mistakes. When you do great things, humility reminds you to be thankful instead of boastful.

These characters can also be translated as being modest, humble, or unpretentious.

This Humility title is also used as one of the 8 key concepts of Tang Soo Do. Often romanized as "Kyum Son".

Also sometimes used in Japanese to express humility with an essence of modesty.

Tea Fate

chá yuán

This is a special title for the tea lover. This kind of means "tea fate", but it's more spiritual and hard to define. Perhaps the tea brought you in to drink it. Perhaps the tea will bring you and another tea-lover together. Perhaps you were already there, and the tea came to you. Perhaps it's the ah-ha moment you will have when drinking the tea.

I've been told not to explain this further, as it will either dilute or confuse the purposefully-ambiguous idea embedded in this enigma.

I happen to be the owner of a piece of calligraphy written by either the son or nephew of the last emperor of China, and this is the title he wrote. It was given to me at a Beijing tea house in 2001. This is where I learned to love tea after literally spending weeks tasting and studying everything I could about Chinese tea. I did not understand the significance of the authorship, or meaning of the title at all. Some 10 years later, I realized the gift was so profound and had such providence. Only now I realize the value of a gift that it is too late to give proper thanks for. It was also years later that I ended up in this business, and could have the artwork properly mounted as a wall scroll. It has been borrowed for many exhibitions and shows, and always amazes native Chinese and Taiwanese who read the signature. This piece of calligraphy which I once thought just a bit of ink on a thin and wrinkled piece of paper is now one of my most valued possessions. And by fate, it has taught me to be more thankful of seemingly simple gifts.

Diamond

This is a common way to call diamonds in Chinese and Japanese. Traditionally, there were not that many diamonds that made their way to Asia, so this word does not have the deep cultural significance that it does in the west (thanks mostly to De Beers marketing). Therefore this word was kind of borrowed from other uses.

This title can also refer to vajra (a Sanskrit word meaning both thunderbolt and diamond that originally refers to an indestructible substance); hard metal; pupa of certain insects; Vajrapani, Buddha's warrior attendant; King Kong; adamantine; Buddhist symbol of the indestructible truth.

Gassho

This is the act of greeting someone (can also be done when departing) with hands brought together in a prayerful manner. In India, this would be accompanied by the verbal greeting and blessing of "Namaste". In China, Japan, and Korea, this is how Buddhists will greet each other. Sometimes done by people who are not devout Buddhists in China, Japan and Korea to show respect, reverence or great thanks to someone for a gift, forgiveness, or some honor that has been bestowed. In Japan, this is almost always associated with a deep bow. In China where bowing is not an everyday occurrence, there may be a shallow bow but the act will be done with deep feeling. Korean culture seems to have more bowing than China, but less than Japan.

Thank You / Xie Xie

xiè xie

shie shie

This is how to say thank you in Chinese. It is pronounced a bit like "shea shea" as in the English word for shea butter. Except you pronounce the X like "sh", but with your tongue firmly at the bottom of your mouth.

Unless you are putting this wall scroll near the exit of your store or restaurant to thank customers for coming, it is a bit of an odd selection. A gift of thanks to another person should be a more personal selection with more meaning than a simple thank you. Although common to write xie xie inside a card or letter of thanks.

Technically, this can be pronounced in Japanese, but in Japan, it's still the Chinese way to say thank you. It's like an English speaker saying "gracias" (Spanish word for thank you).

Thank You / Arigato

arigato

This is the simple way to say thank you in Japanese. It's pronounced "Arigato".

The scroll that I am holding in this picture is a "medium size"4-character wall scroll.As you can see, it is a great size to hang on your wall.(We also offer custom wall scrolls in larger sizes)

Professional calligraphers are getting to be hard to find these days.Instead of drawing characters by hand, the new generation in China merely type roman letters into their computer keyboards and pick the character that they want from a list that pops up.

There is some fear that true Chinese calligraphy may become a lost art in the coming years. Many art institutes in China are now promoting calligraphy programs in hopes of keeping this unique form
of art alive.

Even with the teachings of a top-ranked calligrapher in China, my calligraphy will never be good enough to sell. I will leave that to the experts.

The same calligrapher who gave me those lessons also
attracted a crowd of thousands and a TV crew as he created characters over
6-feet high. He happens to be ranked as one of the top 100 calligraphers
in all of China. He is also one of very few that would actually attempt
such a feat.

Some people may refer to this entry as Thankful Kanji, Thankful Characters, Thankful in Mandarin Chinese, Thankful Characters, Thankful in Chinese Writing, Thankful in Japanese Writing, Thankful in Asian Writing, Thankful Ideograms, Chinese Thankful symbols, Thankful Hieroglyphics, Thankful Glyphs, Thankful in Chinese Letters, Thankful Hanzi, Thankful in Japanese Kanji, Thankful Pictograms, Thankful in the Chinese Written-Language, or Thankful in the Japanese Written-Language.